1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety device for preventing a skylight from being opened from the outside. The skylight has a control bar that is accessible through a ventilation opening for putting the inside and the outside of said skylight into communication, and the device prevents such access without preventing such ventilation from taking place.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, such a skylight is opened from the inside by means of the control bar which serves to lock the skylight in the closed position and as a ventilation flap when in a half-open or half-closed position. Since one of the purposes of a skylight is also to protect a house by being opened only from the inside, it can be said that until now this object has not been fulfilled by certain skylights which can be opened from the outside since it is possible to actuate the control bar by inserting an instrument from the outside through the ventilation opening to pivot said control bar, and thus open the skylight.
The object of the present invention is thus to remedy that problem: for this purpose, the device of the invention includes at least two overlapping strips whose areas are smaller than the transverse sections of the opening that they close in part, so that no rigid instrument can be slid from the outside to the control bar, while leaving an unobstructed passage for ventilation air. These strips are preferably situated in the planes of the transverse sections defining the outside and inside faces of the volume of the ventilation opening.
In a preferred embodiment, the two strips have width dimensions smaller than those of the transverse sections extending along the opening side of the skylight, the strips being positioned in an offset manner so as to form a battle; the offset position does not prevent air from flowing, so the ventilation function of the skylight can continue to be used.
In particularly embodiments of the invention:
the two strips cover the transverse sections of the opening in full and they are provided with apertures of any shape but in a manner that is offset without vertical alignment between the two strips;
the strips can also be constituted by perforated metal sheets or small-mesh netting covering the transverse sections in full;
the device can be used with one or more cutouts depending on the size of the skylight, each cutout being formed in the strip situated adjacent to the closure mechanism(s) existing in the skylight so as to allow the mechanism(s) to pass therethrough, i.e. to the outside;
depending on the length of the strips, two or more spacers can interconnect the strips so as to reinforce the device; and
at least one cap of shape suitable for protecting the skylight closure mechanism such as a lever for controlling its lock, can be placed in register with each cutout formed in the strip for passing the mechanism; the cap(s) is/are secured either to the strip situated on the outside of the skylight or to the closure mechanism disposed o the moving frame of the skylight itself.
A cutout can also be made in the strip situated on the outside of the skylight so as to receive a fork that serves to actuate any existing bolt serving to hold the skylight ajar; the sides forming the slider of the fork are longer than the dimensions of the cutout so that in all positions of the fork the opening of the cutout receiving said fork is covered so as to leave no through passage.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the strips co-operate with at least two link spacers to constitute a box whose two transverse sections are partially closed by the strips and which is thus removable; in another embodiment, the strips can be made directly and/or machined while the ventilation opening is being made, thus forming an integral portion of the moving frame of the skylight, or they can be fixed thereto.
To reinforce the baffle effect between the offset openings in the strips that partially close the base areas of the ventilation opening, at least one third strip can be interposed between them in the middle of the box so as to increase the difficulty of inserting an instrument.
The result is a novel safety device preventing skylights that have a control bar placed in register with a ventilation opening from being opened from the outside. The device of the invention can be added in the form of a prefabricated box to an already-existing skylight without any need for the user to modify the box, or it can be fitted to a new skylight so as to be directly integrated in the moving frame of the skylight.